Attendance is Mandatory
by Akane Arihyoshi
Summary: Cinderella/Kingdom Hearts parody. When Demyx's stepmother and stepsisters step out for the night, Demyx plans for a lazy afternoon. He just didn't expect his fairy godmother to show up. Zemyx, yaoi. Hints of AkuRoku. Complete.
1. Men in Pink

Title: Attendance is Mandatory

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I wish I did, God, how I wish I did. I would be the happiest little yaoi fangirl there ever was. Sadly, I share this dream with about 5 million other fangirls, so it's very doubtful that I'll get very far in my quest for the ownership of the holy grail of video games. Please don't sue me. All you'd get anyways is a piece of string and about .73. Is it worth it? The answer is probably yes, but for my own sake I'll shut up now.

* * *

Demyx stared at the floor in front of him. He could have sworn he had cleaned it an hour ago. And yet, there it was, innocently looking back up at him with dirt splotches all over it. He sighed. What did luck have against him? This would not go over well with _her._

As if on cue, a woman descended from the upper level of the building. Her graceful movements immediately placed her in one's mind as one who was accustomed to wealth. The only thing about her that was less than beautiful, Demyx mused, was her voice. In his opinion, anyway. Sadly, no one really listened to his opinion. So the obvious cure to her sad imperfection, a muzzle, was quite overlooked. The woman compensated by using her voice more often, and Demyx discovered that sometimes, practice makes thing much, much worse. Now, for instance.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE FLOOR?!" shrieked Larxene (for that was the dreadful woman's name), "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO TAKE CARE OF IT!"

What a wonderful mood she was in today. "I did!" Demyx insisted, "Over an hour ago. I don't know what happened. I left for two minutes to do something else, and I came back and it was like this!"

"So why isn't it done? You've just been staring at it this whole time?! Get to work, you stupid boy!" the woman yelled. Her voice really was horrible, gone scratchy from years of abuse and overuse. She glared angrily for another moment, then turned and stalked back up the staircase.

Sometimes Demyx thought that the long, cloak-like black dress Larxene always wore was a lot like her soul. Black, and shady. Sighing, he began his work on the floor, cleaning the wood for the second time that day.

If only that woman was his real mother. Well, no, that was a horrible thing to wish for. She was cruel and mean, with no thought for anyone but herself. No one in their right mind would wish to be related to someone like that. However the fact remained that she treated her own daughters a lot better than she did Demyx.

The girls were horrible too. Naminé had inherited her mother's blond hair and good looks, and she was just as horribly selfish and mean as her mother was. She was, however, mostly silent, a major improvement in Demyx's opinion.

Kairi was hardly different, except for her brown hair, and her tendency to talk until your ears bled. Therefore, if Demyx had to pick a favorite, he would have chosen Naminé. At least she knew when to shut up.

Besides, he would pick having his real mother back any day.

It wasn't as if he had never known his own mother or father, not at all. Those types of stories are sad and annoying, since the entire story is usually mostly made up of a young child whining about having to steal for food, when everyone who reads the story wonders why the little kid hasn't been booted to an orphanage. (The author wishes to assure the reader that these stories are indeed sad and heart-warming, however much they ignore common sense and logic.)

No, he had known his mother and father very well, better than most children even bother to _try _to know their parents. Well, his mother anyway. His father was hardly around enough for Demyx to really have a chance to get to know him. But Demyx loved his mother very much.

At this time, the author of this lovely story wishes to speed things along so that the back-story doesn't get in the way, by quickly explaining to readers that Demyx's mother had died when Demyx was 16, leaving him very sad, very weepy, and very lacking in ownership of things with monetary value. To those of you with a vocabulary that leaves much to be desired, just know that that means Demyx was in deep trouble.

After the death of his lovely wife, Demyx's father realized _he_ was in deep trouble as well, since, at the author's attempt to make this story politically correct, Demyx's mother had been making twice as much money at the time of her death as her husband had been. He quickly remarried to an absolutely horrible woman that was at least twenty years younger than him, because that's what most fairy-tale fathers tend to do after the love of their life dies, and the author lacks the imagination needed to come up with a better plot.

In precisely one month after his marriage to his second wife, he died in his sleep. Demyx's father being a relatively young man, the author's opinion on the matter is that he finally realized that he had married a monster, and didn't want to have to deal with it. In keeping with the political correctness of this story, the author is in no way suggesting that all men are lazy and inclined to dump their problems on their 16 year old sons. Just Demyx's father, because Demyx was a very unlucky little boy.

But the author digresses.

Returning to present-day Demyx, two years after our shortened story takes place, we find him finishing up _his_ version of the story of how his mother died, which is long and tedious and made the author cry. We also find him scrubbing the same exact spot on the floor, which, after an hour of continual scrubbing, has become quite clean. The rest of the floor remains, sadly, rather dirty.

After finishing the story silently in his head, and after looking around the room and realizing that only about one square foot of the entire floor was entirely clean, Demyx was left with a feeling of being rather depressed, because he was tired, and he had just wasted an entire hour. Generally people don't tend to enjoy wasting time.

Once more, Demyx's step-mother descended the staircase to the lower level of the house. It took a few moments of staring at her, but after a while Demyx noticed that she was actually dressed in a dress that was very similar to her usual attire, but which was at the same time quite a bit more formal. Her blond hair was styled strangely, with two small sections of her blonde hair pulled high on the top of her head, giving off the impression that she had antennae, like a bug. Overall, it wasn't a bad look.

"We're leaving." she said shortly, turning her gaze on Demyx for hardly a second, before regarding the floor with distaste. "I thought I told you to take care of this."

"You did. Where to?" said Demyx, silently thanking the gods of luck for gracing him with their presence.

"The Prince's ball. He's apparently come of age."

"How lovely for him."

"You won't be coming."

"I hardly want to."

"You'll be here, doing housework."

"Obviously. And here I thought I could have a party of my own."

"Your sisters are coming with me."

"Is that supposed to be a bad thing?"

The woman paused, before calling sharply towards the stairs, "Naminé! Kairi! Hurry up."

The two girls, dressed in attire similar to their mother's, descended from the top floor with great difficulty, as both of them had tried to go down the stairs at the same time. With the width of their skirts, only _one_of them going down the stairs was a sight to see; the both of them trying was merely impossible. The was much bickering to be heard until their mother unleashed the fist of fury upon them. The author will not go into details, as she wants to keep the story's rating down, but it should be known that there was complete silence in the house after, until finally the stepmother and her two daughters had taken their leave.

It took all of five seconds for Demyxto realize that he had the house to himself. It took another five seconds for Demyx to reach the couch, and three more for him to flop himself down in preparation for a nap.

But that would have been too easy.

It took approximately another ten seconds for Demyx to realize that he wasn't the only person in the room. Another .01 second to scream.

And it took him nearly a full two minutes to realize that the other person was a man.

This guy was seriously something else. His hair was pink and curly, and he was dressed in a blackish clock, similar to what Larxene wore normally. Perhaps the oddest thing about him was the pair of large pink wings attached to his back, that made him look feminine and abnormal.

"So." began the newcomer in a bored voice. He pulled what seemed to be a note card out of his pocket, and began reading the words off in a slightly annoyed and hurried fashion. "My name is Marluxia, and I'll be your fairy-godfather for this evening. My job is to help your biggest hopes and dreams come true, and-" he stopped, and looked closer at the note card. His face looked truly pained as he read the rest of the card, before turning back to Demyx. "There's no way I'm reading the rest of that. My job is simply to get you to the ball, where you can meet the man of your dreams and have a happily ever after. Blah blah blah, you know the drill. Boy meets girl, girl runs away for some odd reason, boy finds shoe of girl, boy goes around asking people who do not fit description of original girl to try on a shoe that is obviously too tiny for their grotesque feet, and boy finds girl after wasting days trying to find girl. The traditional love story, and let me tell you, it gets old after the first three times."

Demyx stared at Marluxia for a moment. "That would be great and all, but I'm not a girl."

"I knew that." replied Marluxia, "I'm probably here for a sister of yours or something. Got anyone here named…"-he looked at his note card again- "Demyx? 'Cause she's who I'm here for."

"Yeah, Demyx is here."

"Great, where is she?"

"You're looking at her. And she doesn't want to go to the ball, thanks."

A frown crossed Marluxia's face. He stared at Demyx for a second, before going into full-blown hysterics. "WHY?!" he sobbed. He fell to his knees in obvious mental pain. "There are so many perfectly willing young girls out there, girls who would LOVE to see me! Cinderella, for instance! I was higher rank, but that stupid bibbity boo lady got her! WHY?! My godchild doesn't even want to GO to the ball! WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME, LUXORD?! (Because the gambler of fate sounds like the kind of person who would run a fairy godmother association, totally on a whim.)" and with that, he fell silent, except for the occasional sob.

Naturally, this slightly unnerved Demyx. All the poor boy had wanted to do was take a nap, but this alien being had suddenly showed up and insisted he go to the ball of some rich twit whose father happened to run the country. Demyx gave it up as having inhaled too many cleaning fumes, and flopped back on the couch (Because he got up when the weird guy came. Got it?). Suddenly Marluxia spoke up again.

"What are you doing?" he said, looking bewildered.

"Taking a nap. Everyone's out of the house for once, and no silly hallucinations are gonna ruin my afternoon. Good day, winged sir." Demyx replied, closing his eyes.

"But no no! That won't do," said the fairy, "I've got to get you to the ball, and it won't be very fun for you if you're sleeping."

After opening his eyes and silently contemplating whether or not this guy was barking mad (Which, Demyx thought, he probably was, considering the pink sparkly wings), Demyxshook his head at the older man. "Are you deaf?" he asked, his voice portraying just exactly how utterly miffed he was. "I won't be going! I'm going to stay here and take a nice long nap, and after that I think I'll sneak into the kitchen and make myself a sandwich. None of my plans tonight involve going to the overly large party of a spoiled brat, no matter what you call it or how much it would mean to you if I went."

Instead of the expected expression of either rage or horror, Demyx was very surprised to find Marluxia smiling. "I suppose you actually think I care about your plans? How tragic." And with that, he grabbed Demyx's arm and dragged him away.

* * *

A/N: Yes, I've written something for Kingdom Hearts! And the fans I don't have are all cheering. So it was really fun to write. REALLY fun. It was a pure crack idea. I was reading Coin Operated Boy by freaky-hanyou, and I was just so mad that the fairy wasn't Marluxia...and so I wanted to write a fanfiction with Marluxia as the fairy-godmother, and a Kingdom Hearts/Cinderella crossover was born. I recommend all of freaky-hanyou's work, by the way. Good author.

Reviewing is good for the human soul. But seriously people, being a budding young author and all (ha!) I would love it if you guys would drop a line and briefly (or not so briefly) tell me how I did.


	2. Driver's Education

Title: Attendance is Mandatory

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: Who even reads these? For all I know, I could ramble on about how I own YOU and no one would sue me. I could talk about owning the earth. In that case, I think it's pretty fair to say I own the entire Organization XIII. THEY'RE MINE. (Yeah, right.) (Note to the people who might actually sue me: I'll plead insanity, and I'll **_win_**. What then, huh?)

At the end of their rather short (and somewhat forced, in Demyx's case) journey, Demyx found himself in a small clearing in the edge of a wood. Marluxia looked pleased with himself, and Demyx took that as being a very bad sign. For even as simple as Demyx was, he knew that feminine men with sparkly pink wings strapped to their back smiling mischievously at you was not necessarily a thing one should be hoping to be in the presence of, and indeed not a thing one should be very happy to be around, either.

Marluxia, over Demyx's muttered ravings about how this chain of events proved that sanity was a myth, calmly regarded Demyx with a look of superiority and thoughtfulness, as he contemplated his next move. At least, that's what Marluxia would have described it as. In reality, his expression was most like the expression of a cat who has just cornered a mouse. A very blond, male mouse, which he was going to force to attend the party of another richer male mouse. But that's really beside the point, as this story is about neither mice nor overly feminine cats.

"So," Demyx began, breaking out of his small fit of hysterics to glare at Marluxia with blatant hatred, "What now, Sparkles?"

"Now we play dress up," Marluxia replied happily, disregarding the unpleasant nickname completely, succeeding in infuriating Demyx even more. He took one look at Demyx's clothing (which, to be fair, was very neat and clean, but nothing if not practical,) and shook his head, a light 'tsk' sound emanating from him. "That won't do, now will it?"

"I should think it would, thanks," replied the boy indignantly, regarding his clothes with the type of fondness one would usually reserve for a piece of art (for Demyx was a very strange little boy). "I mean, all a piece of clothing really needs to do is cover the important bits, and you're set."

"That's a very naïve opinion, boy. You know nothing of the finer world," shot Marluxia, his smile now threatening to conquer his entire face.

"You asked…" Demyx muttered.

"Go get a dictionary and look up the word 'rhetorical'."

When Demyx fell silent, Marluxia reached behind his back and mysteriously pulled out a wand from a pocket that not even the author knew was there, waving it threateningly through the air. This action nearly made Demyx burst out laughing, for though the wand instituted a threat to Demyx's well-being, it was just a pink and sparkly as the fairy's wings, if not a bit worse.

Waving his arms around frantically, Marluxia shouted a few key words that unlocked his power and unleashed it on Demyx, key words that the author is not going to write here, lest any one of you decide that it would be neat to go buy a pink frilly wand and try to do magic with some words that you found randomly in a fan fiction. The general effect of the wand-waving and magic-word-saying was that Demyx found himself in a completely different set of clothing, complete with a cane and top hat. Narrowly missing Marluxia, Demyx threw the hat and cane to the side, glaring at them as if they'd done some personal harm to him by just being there.

"What a poor sport you are," Marluxia complained, looking mournfully at the objects now abandoned in the nearby grass. He straightened his cloak nervously, then turned back to look at Demyx. "Now for your transportation". Marluxia snapped his fingers and waved his wand around a bit, pointing it at a random pumpkin, despite the fact that they weren't in season. This made it a very special pumpkin indeed, even without the magical enhancement. With the magic, it may have been twice as special, but no one has ever really cared enough to find out.

Despite it's largely-increasing speciality, the pumpkin did the most boring thing that author could think of, and that was to turn into a carriage smelling rather horrible and looking quite radioactive due to its bright orange color. Marluxia looked pleased with this (making Demyx wonder whether this was Marluxia's best work yet, and if he ought to fear the fairy's other carriages), and so he turned to a little unoffending mouse and waved his wand at it. Not to be outdone in horridness by the carriage, the mouse slowly and quite painfully, it seemed, turned into an ugly scrawny horse.

Demyx was just wondering whether it might be kinder to kill it when Marluxia handed him the reigns of the horse. Demyx stared at them for a moment.

"And what, pray tell, am I supposed to do with this?" he spluttered, gaping at the fairy. Marluxia gave a snort of laughter before replying.

"To put it simply, I'm too lazy to give you a driver, and I couldn't have anyway, because all the once-abundant woodland animals seem to have gone."

"That's because they saw what you did to the poor mouse!" Demyx shot back, looking at the animal in question with a strange mixture of pity and disgust. "So what was the carriage for, if I could have just taken the horse?"

Marluxia shrugged. "It's in the handbook that I have to make you a carriage out of a vegetable. Nasty stories about people who cheated. One poor bloke thought he could get away with giving his godchild a tomato carriage. Luxord nearly killed him, poor soul." he said, looking at the frail horse thoughtfully. "Besides, I really doubt that thing would have held you, boy."

He had a point.

Demyx climbed onto the driver's seat carefully, not wanting the horse to have a heart attack, and at the same time wondering whether or not mice-turned-horses could even _have_ heart attacks.

The fairy began to cackle evilly, and it wasn't hard to see why. The way Demyx was holding the reigns, it was obvious he'd never ridden a horse in his life, much less driven a carriage with one. "New at this?" Marluxia asked sweetly, and you could see that his smile had taken over much of his cheeks and was now moving up the line to wage war with his ears for more space.

"…maybe." Demyx replied carefully, conveniently forgetting that when asked an embarrassing or potentially life-threatening question, a non-committal answer is like wearing a big flashing neon sign with 'YES' written on it in huge font.

"That's just too bad," Marluxia said, and he slapped the horse, sending it into a frenzy. The horse started off in a gallop, and as Demyx tried to steer it in the direction of the palace, he heard Marluxia continue, "I'd guess you better learn!"

God, he hated fairies.

* * *

A/N: Well. I'm sorry this chapter is shorter than the other one. But I just felt like I should post something before I forgot, and that was a really good place to cut the chapter off. I'm really sorry to the people that wanted Demyx in a dress. But I mean, come on. All I got was one review saying "I can't wait to see whether Demyx will be in a tux or a dress!" and it was ANONYMOUS. I had absolutely nothing to go on. Yes, I know I didn't ask. Shame on me. Actually, I lied. The name said MoogleyLover, but it was typed in and all...so yeah.

I GOT A REVIEW FROM THE BEST AUTHOR IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Freaky-Hanyou gave me a review. I nearly had a stroke, I was so happy. See, aren't you glad you read my author's note? And she faved my story, and faved moi, and I nearly had insert life-threatening injury because I was THAT HAPPY. It made me feel so totally awesome about myself. I finally had a story that a good author noticed! squee

Thanks so much to my other reviewers, who I have looked at the profiles of and will be reading the stories of very soon. Expect my reviews. Thanks to ScuzzyToast, Mariko the Forgetful Idiot, MysticalxHysterical, Mina, and MoogleyLover. I got no less that FOUR reviews in the 5 hours I was away from my computer after I wrote this. That's a record for me.

Akane


	3. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Title: Attendance is Mandatory

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: No, I don't own this. Or, well, I own the game. Finally. I own the PS2 version of the game as of yesterday. (Is there any other version? Hmm...I don't care.) Yup.

Warning: AkuRoku hints in this chapter. Also a very violent mouse. And a very silent Demyx. To me, Demyx being silent is creepy, so it goes on the warnings list.

A/N: I FINALLY GOT KINGDOM HEARTS II. Not that I had the first one. (I know you're all thinking "She's writing a fanfic about Kingdom Hearts and she hasn't even played it?") But I was so happy that you get to start playing as Roxas. When they woke Sora up, I was like "NO! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME STOP PLAYING ROXAS! I WON'T PLAY AS SORA, I WON'T!" XD

But my favorite part was when Axel first came out. I nearly had a spasm. I was screaming "AXEL, I LOVE YOU!" and I was just so happy...and then he started burning Roxas in the fight and I kinda started screaming at him. "Axel, don't burn Roxas! He'll remember that he loves you, I swear! You'll have a crisped lover if you keep doing that!" and then I had to hurt him in the mansion, and I cried. Did you guys ever notice that the one drawing Naminé did of Axel and Roxas that she has on the wall of her room in the mansion looks a LOT like AkuRoku? I was VERY happy when I saw it.

Moving onward. Time to read my story.

* * *

Eventually the horse calmed down enough for Demyx to take his eyes off of it and start focusing on the road. Or, you know, he would have. Had there been a road. Whoops.

"Perfect!" Demyx grumbled, already in a dangerous mood. Being a happy-go-lucky sort of person, this kind of mood usually didn't occur, and when it did, small children and puppies ran for cover. Well, all smallish animals did, really. Except for the kittens. Those kittens were mean. Demyx still had the scars to prove it.

But the author digresses.

Unbeknownst to Demyx, the horse had been sending out little mousey-distress-calls this entire time. Because really, who wouldn't have? There he was, munching happily on some cheese, and BAM! This stupid transvestite with a pink frilly third arm comes out of nowhere and turns the poor thing into a dead-looking pony. But let's not linger long on this tragedy, for the story has a plot to finish!

So, as we've established, there's this horse, tied to a carriage made out of a garden vegetable, making distress calls in a cross between a little mousey shriek and a horse's weird neighing noise, because it's been quite mad for quite some time, and would like to get back to its cheese, thank you very much. Still with me? No? That's just too bad. Keep reading.

As it happened, the little valley where Demyx's horse had come to a stop was exactly the place where the rest of the little woodland creatures had come to escape Marluxia's tyranny. Among these adorable little woodland creatures were mice, and, oddly enough, as the horse was hardly making sense, they quickly came to the aide of the sickly-looking creature, to see if they could help. Or maybe they were just curious as to what was messing up their afternoon with its loud and obnoxious speech patterns. Either way, they were there.

About three seconds after seeing these new not-horse mice, Demyx observed that they were by far the strangest mice he'd ever seen, the horse included. One of them, the biggest one (if not by weight, by height), was a shocking red color. There was a tuft of fur on his head that almost stood straight up, making his head look like it was on fire. The second mouse was both chubbier and shorter than the first, and was a yellowish color. This mouse wasn't quite so alarming, but for his bright blue eyes. With the colorings and the mice's appearance, they were indeed very special.

They could also talk, but Demyx didn't find that out until about a minute later.

Demyx, having the biggest heart it's possible to have without exploding, almost immediately got the urge to pet one of the mice. As he was in the middle of a valley, completely lost, and very depressed after missing his nap, Demyx figured that he might as well. They looked so soft, too. He reached his hand down to touch the yellow one…

…and promptly got bitten by the red one.

Howling in a exaggerated gesture of pain, Demyx pulled his hand away. Apparently these mice didn't wish to be touched. Go figure. Damn sirens of the valley. They looked so _soft._

"Hands to yourself, 'kay mister?" the red mouse said, in a much deeper voice than Demyx was expecting. Except, really, Demyx wasn't expecting it to talk at all. Which may have justified his mouth dropping open to gape at the tiny creature.

"The name's Axel. Got it memorized?" the mouse continued, flashing a brilliant smile. Or it would have been brilliant, if his teeth hadn't been stained with Demyx's blood after biting him. As it was, he looked kinda creepy.

The yellow mouse nudged Axel. "Yes. This is Roxas. Say hello, Roxas!" said Axel, poking the yellow mouse, Roxas, back. After receiving a cold glare, Axel sighed. "Or don't say hello. Be rude to our guest, see if I care."

Demyx, who was about to pass out after all the hallucinations he had had today, just stared, mouth wide open.

"Well then. Where are you headed, strange one?" Axel asked, looking back up at Demyx. Seeming to realize that he wasn't going to get an answer, he sighed again. "Humans really are a mess, aren't they?" he said, mostly to himself.

By this time Demyx had graduated from the blank stare to having his mouth moving, and no sound emanating from his being. While this was an improvement, it still seemed to anger the little mouse. Which, as funny as it is to make a little creature angry, one should never do. That's the first rule about mice. The other rule is to never give them a cookie, because we _all _know what happens when you give a mouse a cookie. (Did any of you read that book as little kids? I loved it.)

Thus, the little red mousey sidled up to Demyx's leg, which was hanging down from the seat, and bit it. Hard. This helped Demyx regain his composure _that _much quicker. Just not in the way Demyx would have liked.

Eh, it worked.

Demyx shouted once more, starting to lose his patience with these mice. The blond one was okay, he was quiet, but the red one…the red one needed to suffer a freak accident rendering his teeth useless. Seriously. The thing was like razor blades wrapped in a cute furry package. Annoying? You betcha.

Oddly enough, the yellow mouse, Roxas, chose that moment to speak up. "Axel, if you don't stop biting him, you're either going to make him have a heart attack, or get out the rat poison." he said quietly, focusing his bright blue eyes directly onto Axel's green ones.

Axel glared for a second, but relaxed quickly. "It's not like his institutes a threat, Roxas," he said coolly, regarding Demyx with an expression somewhere between scorn and pity. He turned back to Roxas. "I mean, come on, the evidence is telling me he can't even speak. How pitiful is that? All he makes are these weird loud noises, and they aren't even in a certain language."

By this time Demyx had just about had enough. There's definitely something disconcerting about a small talking animal calling you stupid. Demyx opened his mouth to tell the mouse off, but a very different sound ended up coming out.

"Look Roxas, it squeaks!" Axel said, looking perfectly delighted. "Maybe we can keep it as a pet! Oh wow, Roxas, can we keep it?"

Roxas looked at Demyx once more with distaste and then turned back to Axel. "No we can't. You don't know where that thing's been, Axel. For all we know, it could be friends with that transvestite witch we saw in the clearing."

Now that he was reminded of Marluxia, Demyx suddenly began to reflect upon his journey so far. Somehow, it didn't exactly remind him of the traditional Cinderella story. But then, was it even supposed to anyway? Marluxia would be pleased, anyhow.

"But Roxas," Axel whined, putting on his best cute face in his best attempt at irresistible-ness. Roxas wasn't fazed. "We're not going to keep it, Axel." he repeated, blatantly ignoring Axel's attempts at cuteness.

"But--"

"No."

"Roxas--"

"Nope."

"Maybe if we--"

"Not gonna happen."

Demyx thought maybe he was losing his mind. Or maybe it was normal to have two mice fighting over whether or not to keep you as a house pet. The world may never know.

The world may never care, either.

* * *

A/N: Yes, I know. Another author's note. Get over it, I like ranting, and I just got the video game I've been waiting to get forever. So, as it turns out, the Back Alley in Twilight Town is really scary. It's got beer bottles and drug plants all over the place. Scary? Yeah.

Thanks once again for the reviews, they keep me going. But one thing I've noticed is that some people are just putting my story on alert and then not leaving a review. Please, people, if you're going to alert it, or me, or fave it, or me, leave a review and tell me why! I need to know these things. Sorta. Okay, so I really don't, but I LIKE to know these things.

Review, please! I know more people have been reading this than are reviewing.

Edit: I totally forgot about this! For Moogles With Flamethrowers: Mooshkumwanna, gibberty, fruddums. There you go. The first one is my friend's word, and the last two are strictly Marly's. (Sorta.)


	4. Drastically Unarmed

Title: Attendance is Mandatory

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: I join 50 million fangirls in my quest for ownership of Kingdom Hearts. And I know that none of us will ever achieve that goal. Unless one of the fangirls is the owner of Disney or something.

* * *

After a few minutes the arguing stopped, Roxas the obvious victor. Axel was pouting, and Roxas had a smug look on his face, the first non-irritated expression Demyx had actually seen on the yellow mouse's face.

What a pair.

Demyx cleared his throat loudly. Now that it seemed the mice were quite done with their argument, he felt it was a good time to make his intelligence known to them. For God's sake, they thought he was a pet. Mice. _Mice _thought he was less intelligent than a common animal. And not just any mice. _Talking_ mice. God forbid anything about this day could be normal.

The mice turned to look at him in bewilderment. "What's that noise it made?" Axel asked his partner, "D'you think maybe it's hungry or something?"

"Dunno. Maybe. But Axel, it's a wild animal, it can probably find food for itself," Roxas replied.

Now really.

Demyx cleared his throat again. "Can you two tell me the way to the palace?" he asked, figuring he might as well try. Marluxia _had _said something about a ball, after all. And if Demyx remembered right, that Cinderella chick had a midnight deadline. Demyx wasn't about to be stranded in the middle of the valley-from-hell with an angry mouse-horse, a pumpkin, and two vicious mice for company.

The mice looked up at him, with slightly bemused and shocked expressions marring their otherwise normal features. "D'you know, I think it just spoke!" said Axel, looking slightly mollified.

Demyx slapped his hand to his forehead. There was nothing he would like better at the moment than to strangle that little mouse. It had had it coming for quite some time now. Luckily for the mouse, Demyx was not a violent person. Of course, it probably helped the mouse's luck that it had bitten him twice by now, making the boy quite scared to go near it.

"The way to the castle, you said?" Roxas asked hesitantly, gazing about him in a sort of paranoid way."

"I must be mad, but yes. That's what I asked. Unless you know where I live and would like to direct me back there, I see no alternative." Demyx replied sadly.

"Well if that's all your after, that's easy!" Axel chirped happily. "I mean, you can see the castle from _here._" He pointed behind Demyx.

The boy turned around slowly, only to be met by the sight of a very large castle, sitting on a small mountain not a mile away. He nearly fell off his seat.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" he shouted angrily, throwing a death glare at the mice for good measure. When neither mouse dropped down dead from the look, Demyx seemed to get even more irritated.

This wasn't turning out to be a good day.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

Marluxia surveyed his handiwork. Or what was left of it, really. A thoroughly ruined nearby vegetable garden, traumatized gophers, and quite a few horse hoof prints littered the area. All in all, not a bad send off, Marluxia thought to himself, grinning. Why, now Luxord might actually give him that raise he was hoping for…

"MARLUXIA!"

…or not.

A hooded figure stepped into the clearing, finger pointing at the fairy. "Where is your charge?! I told you not to leave him for a moment!" the figure screeched, waving the gloved finger threateningly through the air. Or, at least, the gesture would have been threatening, had the figure been closer to Marluxia, and had it been a fist instead of a finger. And maybe if the fist was made out of something harder than flesh and bone. In fact, it really wasn't remotely threatening at all. Just kind of silly, waving around like that.

"Luxord!" Marluxia greeted happily. "Just the person I didn't want to see! How charming. Are you staying long, shall I make tea?" he cooed, frolicking about sarcastically. As sarcastically as frolicking can be, anyway.

Luxord growled. "Stop flitting around. Where is your charge, Marluxia?"

"Most likely on the way to the castle. He may actually be on the right road by now, I sent him off an hour ago…"

The cloaked figure drew his hood back to reveal a furious face, complete with gnashing teeth and fire spitting from his nostrils. After all, they were in fairy-land, because Demyx lived there, and exaggerations like that tend to take place often there. The effect seemed to be well-appreciated by Marluxia.

"Hmm, yes, well, I see your point," he began conversationally, inching away. "Generally I didn't expect you to be _quite _so miffed, but no matter."

"GO AND FIND HIM, YOU USELESS MAN-FAIRY!" Luxord screamed, whacking the pink fairy with the sharp end of his own magic wand.

Yes. He was definitely going to get that raise.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

Demyx arrived at the castle within the next ten minutes. Unbeknownst to him, however, Axel and Roxas, deciding to not miss out on the fun, had snuck into the carriage, set on going to the ball, but that is a different story, one that the author has no idea how to tell you.

Upon arriving at the gates, Demyx found that the amount of guards stationed at the castle was enormous, and all of them were carrying big threatening weapons. 'What a lovely castle setting,' he thought. 'Sure to bring in the visitors.'

Getting up off of his seat he approached the guard in the middle of the group. "Hello sir," he began uncertainly.

"Name?" the guard asked immediately. He peered down at Demyx over a long list.

"Demyx," the boy replied quietly, slightly intimidated.

The guard looked over his list once. Then twice. He looked over his list once more for good measure. "I'm sorry son. You're not on the list, and I can't let you in," he said solemnly, glancing at Demyx pityingly.

"But…what?"

"I'm afraid…you have to go home."

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

"Welcome to the castle sir!" said a cheery voice. Demyx snapped out of his day-dream. It had been such a nice one too. He had been imagining the castle, all surrounded with guards, and in the daydream, they were telling him he had to go home, refusing to let him enter the castle…

In reality, the castle was heavily under guarded, with about two drastically unarmed guards mulling about. A third person was now pulling Demyx off his seat in excitement, attempting to either greet him or kill him. A fourth man opened the carriage door with a small flourish, seeming mildly surprised when two mice popped out, walking on their back legs with dignity towards the door of the castle.

"Sir! May I take your coat sir? May I direct you to the door sir?" the greeter asked cheerily, falling all over himself in his attempt to be helpful. The overall effect was that he ended up being rather annoying.

"No thank-you, I can actually see the door, believe it or not, as it's huge, and it would take a blind man to miss it," Demyx replied coolly. Picking up his coat from where it had fallen to the ground, the boy walked towards the castle with a feeling of foreboding.

Only four hours 'till midnight. Demyx stifled a groan.

* * *

A/N: This makes me laugh. Did you know that An is the chemical symbol for gold? Or summat. But yeah, An is gold in scientifical terms. So author's notes are golden. HA.

I kinda didn't like this chapter. I don't think I wrote it very well. I like the ideas, like usual, but I think I could have written everything out better...do you think so too?

I guess this story has become my 'sorry' to Demyx...today, I finally did something I was hoping to put off...I killed Demyx in KHII. He put up a good fight, though. I had to try three times before I beat him. And then I sobbed for an hour. Literally sobbing. Tears running down my cheeks and sobby noises coming out of my mouth and everything. Then Xemnas started talking and I was screaming my apologies to him at the TV set. Does that make me lame or something? I think I might be obsessed...

Anyways, please review. Please. Make me feel better. Pretty please? With sugar and sprinkles and Axel on top?

Akane


	5. Sanity Abolished

Title: Attendance is Mandatory

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: No, I don't own it. I really wish I did. If I owned Kingdom Hearts, Organization XIII would eventually achieve their goals, and Sora would be killed so that Roxas could live. Call me horrible, I don't care, but the fact remains that in order to have Roxas, Sora has to go. It's one or the other, and which one decided to start killing off Organization XIII members? SORA. HE KILLED THEM. HE MUST PAY WITH HIS LIFE. And THAT'S why I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

Prince Zexion sighed as he looked into the mirror. The King had really gone crazy this time. Even crazier than he usually was.

King Xemnas had ordered a ball to be held tonight. But not just any old 'dance-until-you-drop' or 'suck-up-to-the-king-and-queen' ball. This particular party was to be held for Zexion himself. Not by his own will, mind you, but for the disastrous ends of the King.

He sighed once more, mulling over his reflection. Not that he was very vain, but the clothes were uncomfortable and scratchy. He tried pulling at the collar. Nothing happened. After pulling at different places to no avail, Zexion finally picked up a pair of scissors, snapping them shut menacingly. "I always thought it might be fun to be a tailor…" he mused.

_Snip. Snip snip. Snip. Snip snip snip. _A yell of pain. _Snip._

Several minor cuts and injuries later, Zexion emerged triumphant. Nursing a small wound on his finger, he turned around carefully to observe his appearance once more. Perfect.

The door opened as the Queen entered the room.

The author finds that this time is perfect for reminding the readers that, since this is fairy-land, strange stuff happens almost constantly. In fact, strange things happen so much that if something normal happened, it would almost be tragic. Therefore, the author begs the readers to keep an open mind as she assures them that yes, the queen…

…is named Saïx. And wearing a very tasteful suit. Very handsome indeed.

And yes, a male.

"Zexion, if you didn't like the suit, you could have just told us. You didn't have to…murder it…" Saïx said mournfully.

"But I do like it…I like it _now, _anyway." Zexion added, a small smile showing on his face. But indeed, his suit did look rather…dead. Fashionably deceased, but the fact still remained that it held none of its original features. The very hint of anything feminine had been removed from the article of clothing, along with the tie, hat, and jacket. The shirt had been cut and re-sewn in a few places, forcing it to fit much more tightly to Zexion's chest. The pants had almost been left alone, but they too had been cut and re-sewn in a few places along the legs. The overall effect was rather dashing.

"I see…yes, well. Xemnas sent me to tell you that you're expected in the main hall in five minutes, to greet our guests," Saïx explained quickly, forcing his eyes away from the mangled suit, "And we both expect you to be courteous."

With that, the Queen left the room.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

Five tragically short minutes later, Zexion descended the curving stairway down to the main hall. He looked around him to see, with a fair amount of astonishment, that what looked like half the kingdom was jammed into the large hall, with hardly a square foot of space left to spare. That wasn't the worst part, though. The worst part was _which _half of the kingdom had found themselves in his presence.

The women.

The air was filled with the happy twittering noise of gossip, as the ladies proceeded to tell each other the private business of everyone else in the room. Zexion thought he mightn't survive the evening. Judging from the looks on the castle staff's faces, they thought so too. Pitying looks were sent in his direction when they thought he wasn't looking.

Zexion sighed dejectedly. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," he recited dutifully, looking once more at the crowd. "The only problem is, this will most likely kill me."

Out of nowhere, Saïx was suddenly at his side, trying his hand at a unintentionally painful imitation of a comforting pat on the back. Zexion coughed violently, taken aback. "That's the spirit!" Saïx said cheerily, not seeming to notice how hard he was hitting the Prince. "Just be your naturally gorgeous self. The girls won't know what hit them." And with that, the Queen pushed Zexion into the mob of women.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

Demyx stepped through the large castle doors into the main hall of the palace. Or he would have. Had there really been anywhere to go. As it was, the walking space was extremely limited. The entire female population of the kingdom seemed to be in attendance. Along with a scattering of feminine men.

Looking around Demyx found, to his pleasure, that he could quite easily see over the heads of everyone in the room, despite the rather lethal looking heels some of the women wore. It was obvious that this was not the room they were expected to stay in for the remainder of the evening. Granted, Demyx's entire _house _could fit inside this room three times with space to spare, but it was hardly big enough to house several dancing couples.

A stairway was placed at the very end of the room, with smooth marble steps leading in a spiral up to the second floor, and indeed, it was the only real fixed thing in the room. Otherwise, it was quite bare, save for the occasional painting or tapestry.

Demyx was just about to push his way through to examine the painting on his left when he found a hand resting itself lightly on his shoulder. Resisting the urge to snap the offending fingers in half, Demyx turned around to find…

…that wasn't the same pink fairy, was it?

"Dem…what's-your-name!" Marluxia cried happily. Many heads turned to stare at them, before the women went back to their gossip with renewed determination. "Fancy seeing you here!" Marly continued merrily, clapping his hand down on Demyx's shoulder in what most people seem to consider a kind gesture, but what is really actually quite painful.

"What's that supposed to mean? You're the one that sent me here!" Demyx said angrily.

Marluxia looked rather confused. "Did I…?" he asked. Upon receiving a cold glare from Demyx, he waved his hand through the air. "Hmm, so I did. Well now. Having fun, are we? Gosh, this looks like fun. You wouldn't mind if I left now, would you? No? Oh good, I'm simply dying to try out the punch…" and with that, Marluxia gave a small giggle and left.

"Gone to _spike _the punch, more like…" Demyx muttered unhappily.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

Somewhere, in a world not much different from Demyx's world, in that it too was magical, Luxord shook his head dejectedly.

Marluxia was going to get himself killed.

* * *

A/N: Alrighty then. I'm starting to get disappointed with my reviews...I think only ONE person sent me a long review this time. Maybe two of you. And the three or four more I got were either one liners, or so short that you didn't mention anything from the chapter at ALL. C'mon, people...is this story really that bad? I need to know I'm not wasting my time here. And I know how many people are reading this. I saw the hit count and was BLOWN AWAY. But only like...10 of you review. Make me feel like I'm writing this for a reason, people...I need a reason to keep writing.

Akane


	6. Love, and Other Mental Illnesses

Title: Attendance is Mandatory

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: Yeah. I own them. Because obviously the game itself has AKANE ARIHYOSHI stuck on the front of it under the 'creator' thing. Use common sense, people.

* * *

Demyx, after thinking sadly that this night was never going to get any better if Marluxia insisted on being here, dully turned his interest once more to the painting on his left, and was just going to move closer to examine it when he happened to notice that most of the chatter and gossip in the hall had stopped. He looked up.

There, at the top of the marble staircase, stood the Prince.

Odd, slate colored hair fell across one of his eyes, but what was visible of his face seemed bored at best. It was quite obvious that he was hardly happy to be here. Even from here Demyx could see the disdain with which the Prince regarded the formerly gossiping women.

At this point, the royal staff had opened two very large doors that Demyx was surprised he hadn't realized before. These appeared to lead into a room much larger than the already enormous entrance hall. The women, tearing their eyes off of the Prince, shuffled into this second room happily, once more resuming their chatter. Demyx hung back slightly, not caring to be caught up in the mad rush of people. Doing this, he thought he saw Marluxia sneak in past the women, but he couldn't be sure of this. Or rather, Demyx was sure that Marluxia had gone into the second room, but he may not have had to do so sneakily. For all the boy knew, the women may have thought Marluxia a woman like themselves and allowed him to pass unchallenged.

Waiting until he was one of the last in the hall, Demyx made his way towards the large double doors. Upon reaching them, Demyx allowed himself a small glance back at the Prince.

He swore he wouldn't fall in love.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

Zexion stood at the top of the marble staircase. The palace staff began opening the double doors leading to the ballroom, as Saïx had no doubt instructed them. The women began to shuffle through these doors, after stealing small glances at the Prince. How pitiful.

The Queen silently joined the Prince at the top of the stairs, watching the scene below them with a beam of happiness. "Lovely weather for falling in love," Saïx stated coolly. Zexion glared at him. "What?" Saïx asked innocently. "I mean, that _is _the entire purpose of the ball, isn't it? And really, the chances are very high. Every woman in the country has come! Even some married ones, although I really don't know what they're doing here…" he said, trailing off onto a different subject, a habit to which he was quite prone.

"Look," Zexion interrupted, "It was a nice thought, really it was, but--"

"But nothing! Don't worry, I know just what you were going to say. You were going to say 'but I don't think any girl will really love me for who I am, they'll all love me for my wealth', and that's not true! You'll find that special girl, Zexion. I just know it."

"Yeah…that was _exactly _what I meant to say…" Zexion growled sarcastically, but the Queen had already walked off to join the crowd in their journey towards the ballroom. He sighed angrily. He didn't want this…none of it. He didn't want the fairy-tale ending, he didn't want to meet the girl of his dreams, didn't want the love at first sight…

Yeah right. He could tell himself that until Sora and the heartless became best buddies and went frolicking through the daisies every Tuesday (At this Zexion paused, because in this world he had no idea who Sora or the heartless were, and even being quite intelligent his subconscious use of those names confused him), but if King Xemnas had anything to say about it, falling in love might be preferable to the arranged affair that awaited him tomorrow.

Love was a hard thing to balance. In fact, it was completely against all logic. It didn't fit in the order of the universe. It couldn't fit. It was a completely illogical and insane feeling, one that should hardly be allowed to have existence in this world.

"What a horrible thing," Zexion thought. "To have such a hold on one's heart, the ability to heal or break it, is power that no mere emotion should hold."

He swore he wouldn't fall in love.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

Demyx wondered dully if Marluxia would even miss him if he were to leave the party. After considering this for a few minutes, he idly took into account that Marluxia had probably planted a tracking chip on him in the past few hours, and so he gave the running away idea a kick out of the idea bin. So if he couldn't run away, what else was he going to do? He walked through the doors.

He had to stop himself from gasping. There wasn't any way you could call this room ugly. It was filled with very detailed decorations and beautiful silks draped around. Several of the women had stopped in their tracks, likely to share Demyx's sentiments. This made it rather hard to navigate a safe path to the center of the room, but Demyx managed somehow.

Marluxia appeared out of nowhere. "Having fun?" he asked sweetly, draping an arm around Demyx. "So much fun I could just die," replied Demyx wearily, carefully shrugging the limb off of his body.

"Glad to hear it!" said Marly cheerily. Nothing the boy said seemed to startle him. Demyx wondered if he hadn't heard it all before. Was this fairy thing a full-time job? Surely he wasn't the only one. Some other poor soul must have recently been hitched up to some random Prince by the pink fairy.

He was interrupted from his musings by a happy squeal. Alarmed, Demyx turned to Marluxia, only to find…

…that the stupid man-lady fairy had gotten hold of a piece of cake and was fangirling all over it. Jeez.

Slightly disturbed, Demyx made his way father into the ballroom's center. He looked around once more. This time, the view was slightly different. A tapestry on his left, what seemed to be refreshments to his right, a small door that was almost invisible behind a large painting, and behind him-

…wait. A door?

Demyx cautiously made his way over to the painting that mostly covered the door. Pushing it aside, he saw that this door had obviously not been opened in a long time. It was locked with a very old padlock.

Of course, this was hardly a barrier. Quickly sneaking a hairpin from the hairdo of a passing lady (her hair fell apart spectacularly in a parade of curls, and Demyx felt slightly bad afterwards to have ruined her evening), he silently picked the lock that hung from the rusty latch. Making short work of this, he slipped the lock into his pocket and lifted the latch, carefully entering into the room the door concealed.

Well this was hardly a room.

Demyx observed his surroundings with a hint of distaste. The room was obviously not used a lot. Another door led outside the room, and upon trying it, Demyx found that it was unlocked, and led to a part of the castle kitchens. There were only three pieces of furniture in the room, a tall lamp, a piano, and a rickety old bench that Demyx was almost afraid to test his weight on.

Maybe he should go back to the ballroom. Marluxia would be searching for him, and he had yet to ruin the evening for those in attendance. Maybe…

Or maybe the piano was in tune?

Only one way to find out, no?

Demyx warily took a seat at the bench. Thankfully, it held his weight. His fingers rested on the keys. He hesitated slightly, as his mind scrambled to finish the last-minute insecurities it had about his piano-playing abilities, and then he played his first note, and he was off.

Later, Demyx thought he must have played for an hour before the door from the kitchens opened. In reality, it had only been scarcely ten minutes, but he would never know. The only thing that mattered to him at the moment was that the door _had _opened, and that the Prince himself had stepped into the room, and that once Demyx took in the shocked look on the Prince's otherwise unemotional features he knew he was in trouble. Not because he was in a forbidden room in a part of the castle that he doubted anyone but its two current occupants knew about, not because he was trespassing in a secret room.

Because he couldn't look away from those beautiful eyes.

And that's when he realized just how big a mess he had gotten himself into. He could have kicked himself.

He had fallen in love with the Prince.

* * *

A/N: Okay. So, I kinda didn't like this chapter. I wrote it kinda...sleep-deprived. Yucky. No one likes sleep-deprived. And it's a Monday, and I wrote most of it today, so it's not my top-quality work...but you know, you get what you get. Or I get what I get. And I force you to obtain it second-hand. Did that make any sense? If it did, could you explain it to me? Like I said. Monday. Yuck yuck yuck.

So. Last chapter, I got some AMAZING reviews. Thanks guys, you make me want to squeal everytime I read something you guys send me. ALRIGHT. NEW REQUEST. I wanna get to know you all. So, if you actually read this note, I want you guys to include a paragraph about yourself in your review, if it's not too much trouble. I'd love to get to know some things about you. It doesn't have to include stuff like your address. In fact, it shouldn't...but you could tell me like...you fave color, or your pet's name, or what score you got on your last math test. I don't care what you tell me, but I wanna get to know all you cool people who insist on giving me love. Sound reasonable?

Akane


	7. Music Tames the Apathetic Royalty

Title: Attendance is Mandatory

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: Just read my story, darn it. I don't care if you sue me. If you're seriously stupid enough to believe that I own Kingdom Hearts, you deserve to get your butt kicked by me in the court system.

* * *

Well, this was an awkward situation.

Of course, Zexion had known that there was door from this room to the ballroom. That's why he had locked it.

"How did you get in?" Zexion asked. Demyx paused, as if reminding himself of the answer before replying much more confidently than he felt, "If you want people to stay out, find a better padlock."

Zexion was silent for a moment. Apparently the incompetence of his lock hadn't crossed his mind. He appeared to take this as a good explanation, and with a nod accepted the lock from Demyx's outstretched hand. "What a disappointing hunk of metal," Zexion sighed.

Demyx went back to the piano in front of him. Placing his fingers once more on the keys, he began to play the melody that had been interrupted once more. Not pausing in the song, Demyx laughed a little. "So what brings you here, Highness?" he chuckled, turning momentarily to grin at the Prince. "Shouldn't you be at the party? Your adoring fans will wonder where you've gone."

"Isn't that my question to ask?" Zexion countered smoothly, leaning against the far end of the instrument. "Boredom, mostly. Who in their right mind wants to go and dance with a room full of women, who, the very first time, you try to dance, immediately get jealous beyond belief and try to tear each other's eyes out? No logic justifies this."

"The resulting fight might be interesting to watch, though," Demyx said cheerily.

"So what about you? What brings you to break into a locked room?"

"Hiding."

"From whom? Or are the women really that scary? Should I hide too?"

"Nah, not them. Even if they kind of creep me out. I'm hiding from my fairy godmother."

Upon saying this, Demyx turned to find Zexion staring at him. Then Zexion burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, and you sound all serious and everything, but do you actually expect me to believe that a magical woman came to you house, said a few magic words, and gave you a pumpkin carriage and footmen to bring you to the ball?" Zexion asked incredulously.

"Oh no, of course I don't."

"Well good, because--"

"Marluxia's not a woman. And he certainly didn't give me footmen. I had to drive the stupid vegetable all by myself."

Demyx thought that Zexion might pass out. Certainly, all the color drained out of his face, and he looked a little unstable on his feet. "Wh-what?" Zexion asked lightly. "I could have sworn you said--"

"Oh, I did," Demyx said sweetly, never pausing in his music. "And now I'm hiding from my tyrant of a god parent who's hell bent on forcing me to fall in love." he added happily, continuing to play, and laughing at the look on Zexion's face. "But don't worry," he continued, "You're safe. It's not like he can force us to fall in love. You've got a choice, and I've got a choice, whether he likes it or not."

Of course, Demyx had already made his choice. But what was the point in telling the poor Prince?

And then Zexion started laughing. "This is just great," he laughed. "You know, when I was a little kid one of these things was all I ever wanted. To meet the person of my dreams, credit to the fairies. And now that I'm an adult, and it's happened, I don't know what to do!"

"Welcome to the club. It's not like I signed up for it either." Demyx said, frowning. "Not exactly the nicest thing, being woken up and told that you've got to go to a ball and fall in love with the Prince, and you've gotta do it _now._ Then the happy shock of finding out that your fairy is incompetent, and not to mention the crash course I received on driving a vegetable. Along the way I was harassed by mice who thought I was a house-pet, and once I got here I find the aforementioned Prince in what looks like a cupboard with a piano in it. There are moments when I think my fairy god parent is on drugs."

"Wow. On the tragedy scale, you win hands-down," Zexion said, shaking his head. "Your fairy sounds evil."

"No, not evil," replied Demyx, "That's an understatement. He's taken fairy courses from Hades."

The two men settled into a comfortable silence, Demyx playing, Zexion listening. It was just one song, played over and over again, but it was the most beautiful Zexion had ever heard. "What do you call this?" he asked finally.

"Hmm? Call what?"

"This song. What's it called?"

"I…don't really know. It's not really any song, that I know of. Just a tune. A small tune that I made up."

"I see."

And Zexion did see. He saw the soul that was poured into the music, saw the long fingers effortlessly ghosting over the keys, saw the way the tune was played, and committed everything to his memory. He didn't know why, but he didn't want to forget this. Any of it. And so he watched.

They never knew how long they spent in the room like that, the music filling their hearts. Neither of them wanted it to end. But as all things come to a close, so their time together had to end. With a final sweet note, the song came to an end, and the chiming of a clock began. Midnight.

And Demyx ran.

He didn't know why he ran. But he did. Straight out of the room, through the kitchen door. Through the door by the stove that led to the courtyard, and then as fast as he could to the castle gates. He jumped on the carriage and sped away.

He never heard Zexion calling for him to stay. He didn't see the Prince as he tried in vain to keep up with Demyx, his speed not a match for Demyx's long legs. He never saw the disappointment on his face, as he watched the carriage disappear into the night.

And he never saw the single tear that went down Zexion's cheek, as the Prince realized that not once within those hours had he asked the boy his name.

As the Prince realized that he had fallen in love.

* * *

A/N: Alright. Since I love you guys all so much, I decided to update TWICE. Show me the love, people. Review for both chapters, please...if you don't review for both chapters, I'll never double update again. Is that enough of a threat?

So, for once in my life, I've actually got a rough plan as to what the next chapter will be like. And even though I know you all are going to be completely sad about this, the next chapter may be the last. It probably will be. Unless I end up writing a few more pages than I think I'm going to. But don't worry! I have an idea for another fic, and I'm accepting suggestions for oneshots. So if you have a oneshot idea, and you'd like me to write it for you, I'll see what I can do. Sound fun? It does to me...yes, I ran out of ideas. Writer's block hit me. Not for this story, though, which is good. But I wanna write some oneshots, and I have no ideas...

Akane


	8. A Happily Ever After

Title: Attendance is Mandatory

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: No. Just no.

Alrighty guys! This is it! The last chapter. I'm really gonna miss this story...I don't know, maybe I should do a sequel? It might be fun...AND I STILL NEED ONESHOT IDEAS. KEEP 'EM COMING. I've already got a couple really vague ones...please, be more specific...

* * *

There was a knock on the door.

Zexion sighed and got up off his bed. He walked over to the door and opened it. Without even waiting for a greeting, Saïx pushed his way through.

"I want you to tell me EVERYTHING." he gushed, pulling Zexion over to the bed, pushing him back down on it, and sitting next to him. "Who was she? The girl you spent the ball with. We didn't see you…but there must have been some girl! You wouldn't have just skipped out, no matter how angry you were."

A…girl? If he hadn't been so miserable, Zexion would have laughed. Girl indeed.

"He would be offended if he heard you." Zexion replied sadly.

Saïx began to ramble once more, then stopped. He blinked a little bit, then shook his head experimentally. "I sure thought I was awake when I walked in here…" he said, blinking a bit more. "I could have sworn you said--"

"I did."

"But--"

"If you're upset about it being a guy, I'll call you a hypocrite until the day you die, _Queen_ Saïx."

"N-not upset, just--"

"But you don't have to worry about it."

Saïx looked reasonably confused. That is, until he regrouped and pounced. "WHAT'S HIS NAME?!" he demanded, grabbing Zexion by the shoulders and shaking him.

"There, now see, that's where we hit a bit of a snag…"

"You've got to be kidding me," Saix moaned. "How do you do it? One moment you can be the most intelligent boy I know, the next, you fall in love and forget to ask your true love's name!"

"Yeah…" Zexion said, looking away.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

Zexion entered the small room from the kitchens. He couldn't count how many times he'd been here in the last couple of days. Each time was the same. The Prince would sit at the piano bench, and play. Over and over, the same exact song.

He could never make it as pretty as the other boy could. His hands graced the keys, while Zexion struggled to play the right notes. His song required no effort, while Zexion maintained a steady concentration. His song was full of his very soul, while Zexion's was just…a song.

Because it wasn't his song. It couldn't ever be his song.

But for a while, he could pretend it was.

And so he picked out the tune, and practiced it, over and over. The mistakes became fewer, and soon it was almost perfect. It began to get almost repetitive, but still it played, because the Prince could never remember a happier time than that night.

The tune wound on and on, for hours at least. Zexion quickly became entranced by the music, unable to concentrate on anything else.

He didn't even hear the door open.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

The castle guard were asleep. Demyx would have laughed if he weren't afraid to wake them. What idiots. For all they knew, he was here to axe-murder the King, and they just slept right through his entrance.

Not that it was a very dramatic entrance. Demyx almost didn't blame them for sleeping through it. No vegetables tonight. No, Demyx had walked. And arrived rather out of breath. Not exactly the taking-your-breath-away type of dramatic scene he had posed the other night, at the ball.

But sheesh, it was close enough.

Instead of going through the front doors and risking the sleeping guards becoming less unconscious, he crept around to the side courtyard. Picking the tiny lock that had been placed at the gate with ease, he slipped through it and ran across the grass to a wall covered in ivy. Unlocking the door there, Demyx stepped through and found himself in the kitchens. Good. He wasn't lost then.

No one was in the large room, and Demyx hadn't expected anyone to be. It was well after the last meal had passed. Almost midnight, in fact. Everyone would have gone to bed. Including…? Demyx doubted the effectiveness of his plan once more. What if he was already gone?

But that was just one of the risks.

Silently, Demyx walked over to a secluded corner of the room. A door stood there, almost completely hidden by the surrounding furniture. He placed his hand on the doorknob, but stopped himself. Now that he had reached his destination, suddenly he wanted to turn back. He didn't want to have to take these risks. Suddenly the risks seemed far greater than they had upon entering the kitchen.

But Demyx was strong. And he could handle them. Or, if he couldn't, he definitely knew he could run faster than the Prince.

He turned the doorknob, and stepped inside the room.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

It took his breath away.

He had found the Prince, alright. Sitting at the piano, and playing the song that Demyx had played, only a few nights ago. It wasn't perfect. The song still held many flaws. But it was their song. And Zexion remembered.

Then it stopped. Zexion turned his head to stare. "You're back," he said simply, and then they both relaxed. Each was here for the same reason.

Demyx smiled. "I didn't leave a shoe."

And Zexion laughed, like he hadn't been able to in days.

This was love.

And finally, a happily ever after.

* * *

A/N: Last chapter comes to a close. This was really fun to write, even if it is a bit more serious that everything else. But really, putting in humor would have ruined it. So...yeah. I'm sorry it's a bit shorter than the other chapters, but it was the right place to end, you know?

Depending on the amount of positive feedback I get on this idea, I might write a short oneshot sequel to this. What do you guys think? Demyx's new life in a castle. Ha. Could be fun.

Otherwise, I want to thank all of you people who stuck with this story until the end. You guys can't imagine how happy it makes me to see all these people who really appreciate my story. I also want to give a big thanks to all the reviewers. I can't believe this got the response it did. Thanks so much.

I also want to tell future readers that it's never too late to leave a review. Sometimes I read stories that were last updated a year ago, and I don't know whether or not to review, but you guys should know that no matter how late you read this, I'll always appreciate feedback.

Thank you. I owe all of you guys so much.

Akane Arihyoshi


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